The Awl charts the entire course, from the Conception Phase and Underground Phase, through the Indie and Hipster Phases, into and out of the Top 40, to the Shame Phase and beyond. (Not to forget the karaoke afterlife.)

“Why? Because there’s money in it; money and faith. I don’t just mean the few millions to be made from book sales; nor do I mean the simple geek belief in gadgetry. And I certainly don’t mean the pallid, undefined, pop-song promises of politicians trying to turn our eyes from the present – Bill Clinton’s “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow” and Tony Blair’s “Things can only get better”. No, I mean the billions involved in corporate destinies and the yearning for salvation from our human condition.”

“As is the case with many novelists with an international profile, Emma Donoghue has more than one editor. … The Canadian novelist and her two editors [form Canada and the U.S.] talk about sharing responsibilities, resolving disputes, and the long list of ideas Donoghue has waiting for the novels to express them.”

“Even by the standards of pop stars, Hatsune Miku is eccentric and protean, her mystique elusive. Her eyes are too round and blue to be real. She can be buxom or boyish, and almost painfully sultry – all in a droid-ish, understated way. … And yet she never fails to elude the paparazzi.”

“People who create television – and all media, for that matter – have to navigate a sometimes awkward public/private balance when they go online. Many of them are present, and visible, and sometimes they do engage with fans, but just because you can tweet at someone doesn’t mean that it’s a dialogue.”

That’s because of a new tax break meant to stave off poaching from other states: “State lawmakers included the incentive in their recent budget after Louisiana, Illinois, and Rhode Island began luring nascent productions away with their own live-theater incentives.”

It’s an interesting cultural moment: on the one hand, the self-appointed cyberhustler experts in the “future of news” spend their time mocking the fustiness of old media; on the other hand, a star online destination wants to sound more like one of its paper-based predecessors.

“When Stephen Jay Carlton was hired on July 1, 2009, at an annual salary of $75,000 plus full medical benefits, the balance sheet for the Symphony at the fiscal year ending June 2009 showed about $500,000 in endowment funds with close to $10,000 in the checking account. On Sept. 20, 2013, when the alleged fraud began to unravel, there was $1,400 in endowment funds and $0 in the checking account.”

Karen Cohn: “We are exploring every possible idea for creating an economically sustainable way to preserve the current opera company in some form. And if that proves to be impossible, we all stand ready to do whatever we can to help preserve opera in a new form for San Diego.”

“The Colbert Report was more than just a late-night show. The Colbert Report was also the type of character study that had never been seen or attempted before. … 150 nights a year, Colbert defined the character slowly but surely, segment by segment.”

An author and poet in her own right, she was “a central figure in a family of prominent American writers whose most notable member was her husband, John, with whom she had a relationship as complex as those he wrote about.”

“The John and Lisa Pritzker Center for Photography will feature more than 15,500 square feet of space and will almost triple the current amount of space for photography at the museum, according to the museum. The center will be located on the third floor of the museum when it reopens in 2016 after extensive renovations.”

“The production, built around Mary Bridget Davies’s uncanny channeling of the 1960s diva’s spirit and sound, was to begin performances at the Gramercy Theater, following a short Broadway run that generated a fervent fan base.” But on Wednesday producers postponed the opening indefinitely due to what they called “production issues”.

“A faded fragment of papyrus known as the ‘Gospel of Jesus’s Wife,’ which caused an uproar when unveiled by a Harvard Divinity School historian in 2012, has been tested by scientists who conclude in a journal published on Thursday that the ink and papyrus are very likely ancient, and not a modern forgery.”

“The building, to be known as the Nobelhuset, will be sited on Stockholm’s Blasieholmen, next to the Swedish National Museum, in the centre of the city. The design is a spare, glass block, its façades defined by slender brass mullions that give it a glistening, golden sheen intended to look particularly striking in the northern light.”

For decades, archaeologist Monica Hanna says, average Egyptians “believed the heritage belonged to the state, to tourists, not to the people.” As a result, she said, youth are easily persuaded by their elders to help plunder cemeteries and religious sites in a fashion that recalls the thievery in Dickens’ “Oliver Twist.”

“Theatre played an integral role in India’s freedom struggle – what purpose does it serve in the country today? With elections now under way, two playwrights reflect on censorship, audience expectations and the new voices seeking to be heard.”